Wednesday, February 22, 2017 – Driving to the Mara and visiting Sekanani

We left Kericho bright and early for the drive to the Maasai Mara. After we were all sufficiently shaken up by the roads, we stopped at Sekanani Primary School right before the gate to the park. Sekanani is a brand new birthday project of Gord Bontje funded by the family. We were extremely impressed with the progress of the new teacher housing, the first phase. They started the construction on February 2, and are expecting to be finished in a few weeks.

Pastor Ron and the Fundi (contractor) in charge of the building.

The new teacher residence will comfortably house 16 teachers. There are 26 teachers at the school of 1,000 students.

The current teacher housing is meant for 4 occupants, but currently it is housing 8 teachers—2 to a bed.

The next priority is a new ECD (Early Childhood Development) block. The current classrooms, one of which is in the corner of the boarders’ dining room, are much too small to hold the classes of 50-70 students each. Right now the students are squeezed—3-4 to a desk.

The current ECD block with Deputy Head Teacher James.

The next priority is a new block of classrooms for Standard (Grade) 1-3. The large classes are also squeezed into these tiny classrooms, and the building gets quite hot under the beating sun.

We were very happy with the progress and with the grounds. The teachers keep the large area clean and orderly, with lovely paths marked out by stones. We are excited for the next steps and grateful to the Bontje family for improving the lives of the Sekanani students and teachers.